State Power, Symbolic Capital, and the Hierarchy and Homogeneity of Higher Education in China: In the Example of Three Key Universities Policies After the Founding of New China

Abstract The structure of higher education in China is characterized by a high degree of hierarchy as well as strong homogeneity, differing from not only American higher education, which features a high degree of both hierarchy and heterogeneity, but also higher education in continental Europe, which exhibits a low degree of hierarchy. Previous studies have provided analysis of the structural characteristics of higher education in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, as well as their differences, but have been unable to explain the situation in China. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory, this article proposes an explanatory model for the field of higher education as shaped by state power. The state created various forms of symbolic capital linked to economic capital in the field of higher education, and monopolized the quantity in which and means by which these are bestowed, thus causing differentiation in the total amount and composition of symbolic capital and economic capital between different schools, and forming a steeply stratified structure. The bestowal of symbolic capital was not restricted to a particular group of institutions of higher education: instead, the scope of this bestowal was gradually expanded, such that the vast majority of institutions of higher education regard the acquisition of symbolic capital and its attendant economic capital as the objective in their endeavors, resulting in the development of strong homogeneity between institutions. The article applies field theory to three key universities policies after the founding of New China, to describe and analyze the influence of symbolic capital on the field structure of higher education in China.